Past Two Weeks

December 9th:

All of you returned missionaries will understand when I tell you about Zone Leaders.  There are ones who are more relaxed, and others who literally walking rule books, Not that that is a bad thing.  Last week, we arrived at internet a little bit late, and internet is only between 10:30 and 12:00 here.  To the zone leaders, that means down to the minute.  I didn't want to send a huge letter mid sentence, so I just saved the stories for this week also.

So remember our investigator Nilda?  She got her test results back for her cancer to see if it is dangerous or not and.... she's going to be just fine! SHe has an operation ina few weeks that she is nervous about, but everything should turn out fine.  We still visit her every day, and loves hearing our messages.

3 Sundays ago I went to the hospital with a stomach infection.  My companion and I both assumed that would be the last trip to the sodpital for a while, but we were wrong.  Remeber the Holiday called Dia de Peaton? Where the prohibit to drive cars for an entire day.  Well, this is especially problematic for us, since we live in a tiny pueblito 20 minutes from the capilla.  The always seems to fall on a Sunday too, just our luck.  The night before, we slept with other elders near the capilla, but we had to find a way back to our area after church.  So, we came up with the idea od asking members of the ward to borrow bikes to go back.  My companion really wanted to go back on bikes, and since that was the only option, we did.  We got 2 bikes and made our journey back.  About 20 minutes into the trip, my companion hit a pot hole, and lost control of his bike.  He skid about 15 feet on the asphault before stopping.  The 2 members with us, and I rushed over to him, but he was having a tough time walking.  We hiked him up to a seat of another bike, and had to walk to bike about 3 kilometers to the local clinic.  Somehow, the clinic was full, and we had to take him to the hospital to get treated.  Luckily, nothing on him is broken, and all his wounds are superficial.  We were able to leave the hospital that night, and he is almost back to being 100% healthy! 

Last night coming home from the Christmas devotional was an absolute fiasco.  As you all know, missionaries normally don't have a ton of on hand cash to throw around. So at night, when there are no trufis to take, we fit as many elders into a taxi as we can.  Last night was no different, and we fit 6 elders into a 4 door taxi, and left.  About 10 minutes into the taxi ride, the taxi broke down.  Apparently the gas pedal disconnected and he couldn't go anymore.  We all got out to start helping him reconnect it, but we had no tools, or really any knowledge to fixing it.  The only thing we could find in the taxi was a piece of string...  And while this was not my idea, the taxista and some elders cooked up a plan to connect the throttle  with the string to make a very ghetto way of driving.  They fed the string from the engine through the hood, and then through the drivers window.  After, we all piled back in and were actually quite suprised at how smooth he was able to drive with the gas pedal on a string!

Miss all you guys! Write me soon!

Elder Potts III

jacob.potts@myldsmail.net

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission